(Kitco News) - A single gold coin found in the south of Newfoundland, Canada is generating new questions about the country’s history and when the first Europeans actually landed in North America.
Earlier this summer, Edward Hynes was scanning a beach in Southern Newfoundland when his metal detector started beeping. In an interview with the SaltWire Network, he said that at first, he didn't realize the significance of his discovery.
"It was so bright yellow and really thin, and I wasn't thinking it was a gold coin. I was thinking it was almost like a tag from something or a button, or something like that," he said. "I knew it was something cool. It looked interesting to me, but of course, I know nothing of English medieval coins."
Hynes reported his find to the provincial government and according to their research, he actually found the oldest-known English coin in Canadian history.
Paul Berry, former curator of the Bank of Canada's Currency Museum, said that the coin is a Henry VI quarter noble and was minted in London between 1422 and 1427.
"The coin would have been a sizable amount of money in the 1400s, valued at 1 shilling 8 pence," he said in a statement.
Prior to this discovery, the oldest coin found in Canada was a silver coin minted in the 1490s, which was discovered in 2021 in Newfoundland’s Cupids Cove Plantation, a provincial historic site.
The question now is: how did this 15th-century coin end up on the eastern coast of Canada?
Berry said that the coin was probably not in circulation when it was lost.
The Newfoundland government said that it will continue to study the historic gold coin.
